NaviGadget

GPS spoofing

Oct 3, 2008 gps navigation, hacks

An article came out yesterday on how GPS signals could be spoofed and incorrect time and location information could be sent to GPS receivers that are responsible for everything from the power grid all the way to banking system.

…The second, more sinister, method is called spoofing. In spoofing, the intended target doesn’t know that the signal received from a GPS unit is wrong: A spoofer creates a false GPS signal that passes as a real GPS signal, and an incorrect time or location appears on the intended receiver…

However military GPS signals are apparently immune to these attacks thanks to their encryption methods making sure GPS guided smart bombs don’t end up going after wrong targets.

“The military GPS signals are protected against spoofing by using a secret encryption, so that only receivers with that encryption technology can access the signal,” said Langley. “There is no such protection for civilian GPS use.

full article on MSNBC.